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Ficciones

Jorge Luis Borges,

Anthony Kerrigan (Translator)

Start date: January 1, 2016

Finish date: February 28, 2016

Discussion: Side Reads - Fiction

Discussion leader: Lise Petrauskas

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Side Reads - Fiction

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What Members Thought

Jan 23, 2016 El rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-centurylit-late

Borges has been one of those authors I have been putting off for quite a while, but for no good reason. Maybe because everyone has said I "have" to read him, he's so amazing, etc. etc. And sometimes I just get annoyed by being told I have to read someone. In addition to that, there's this sort of attitude by a lot of people who have read Borges that I've encountered outside of Goodreads who like to tell others that if they didn't like Borges, they're just not smart enough to get him.

God, I hate Borges has been one of those authors I have been putting off for quite a while, but for no good reason. Maybe because everyone has said I "have" to read him, he's so amazing, etc. etc. And sometimes I just get annoyed by being told I have to read someone. In addition to that, there's this sort of attitude by a lot of people who have read Borges that I've encountered outside of Goodreads who like to tell others that if they didn't like Borges, they're just not smart enough to get him.

God, I hate that.

But I finally read him, and I get it. He was really smart and talented and full of mind-fuckery. I can see why he's considered one of the best postmodern writers around.

But I will also say I didn't love it. I thought it was fine. I understood it (as much as anyone can understand Borges, but there are so many levels and I don't believe anyone fully understands Borges in one reading), but it's not my bag. Postmodernist writing is a tricky one for me - either I love it or hate it, and for once I'm somewhere in the middle. I can appreciate this, but didn't love it. I wish I did because it seems everyone else does.

Some of the stories worked really well for me and blew my little mind a bit. And others just seemed to be trying too hard.

Now, to be fair, I've heard it comes down to the translator of Borges, and I didn't realize that until too late (as usual). For what it's worth, I read the Anthony Kerrigan edition. Maybe there's something better out there, and maybe I'll give it another chance one day.

The person who previously owned this book before me apparently loved it. At least s/he wrote notes all throughout the inside covers, underlined heavily throughout the text, and occasionally wrote in the margins. Someone obviously wanted to really give this book the time and energy it deserved. And I appreciate that, because they are good notes, and gave me quite a bit to think about.

Borges somehow gets lumped into conversation with Umberto Eco. Let's just say I like Eco more at this point. ...more

12 likes · Like · see review

May 09, 2013 Lise Petrauskas marked it as on-hold

Shelves: short-stories, bloom-western-canon, 20th-century-fiction, south-america, 2019-tbr-books-i-own

I am taking my time with each story. The copy I am reading is a library book so I can't dog ear or underline anything, which actually might end up being a good thing because it will force me to take notes as I go along.

"Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius"
It is funny—"My father and he cemented (the verb is excessive) one of those English friendships which begin by avoiding intimacies and eventually eliminate speech altogether" but there is some wild metaphysical stuff in the interstices of absurdity—"Thi ...more

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Aug 09, 2010 Alasse rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1001-books, metafiction, anthology, books-about-books

Wow. Just WOW.

I'm going to have to read these again. They're so complex and multilayered and unbelievably rich. I don't think that anyone can claim to have extracted all of their meaning in one sitting.
And still, nothing about them even remotely sounds pretentious. Everything's so finely tuned and so well crafted - you never doubt that whatever you haven't quite grasped is entirely your fault.

Yes, I'm definitely reading it again. But for now, WOW. ...more

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